Invalid image format
What causes the "Invalid image format" error in Merchant Center and how to fix it.
This error means the file at your image_link isn't actually a valid, properly encoded image, often a mismatched extension or a corrupted file. Fix it by confirming the file genuinely is a valid image in an accepted encoding.
What triggers it
"Invalid image format" means the content at image_link isn't a properly encoded image at all, distinct from unsupported image type, where the file is a valid image but in a format Google doesn't accept. Here the file is corrupted, mismatched (an image extension serving non-image content), or otherwise fails basic image validation.
This is often a hosting or export bug rather than a deliberate choice: a broken upload, a CDN serving an error page at the expected path, or a file extension that doesn't match its actual content.
/tools validates that image files are genuinely well-formed during enrichment, so a corrupted or mismatched file gets caught before it reaches Merchant Center.
Step by step
- Open the file directly from the image_link URL. Confirm it actually opens as an image rather than showing a broken icon, an error page, or garbled content.
- Check the file extension matches its real content. A URL ending in .jpg that actually serves HTML, a corrupted download, or a file saved with the wrong extension will all trigger this.
- Re-export or re-upload a genuinely valid image file. Don't just rename a file to fix the extension, make sure the underlying bytes are a properly encoded image.
- Re-submit and confirm the error clears. This resolves automatically on the next crawl once a genuinely valid file is live at the URL.